The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-08-05

Come Schemes of Enterprisinc Srecu-
lators Which viii be of Interest
How STRAW" Railroad Man Made
$4,000.
Especial Correspondence
WICHITA, July 81
In my last letter told you the story of the
wonderful growth of this town of Wichita:
how in sixteen years it has become city of
3l0W people and how its development in the
past year has surpassed that of any other
town in the country. In this letter wish to
describe some of the curious phases of its
growth and 20 give you some of the methods
by which ,!ie Immense amount of prairie sur
Io'inlinG it has been sold as city lots
In tie iii st place, the town went crazy over
real estate Its actual growth was discounted
900 per cent. by the hopes of its citizens,
and both the incomers and the residents were
ready to accept any theory of its great fu-
ture. Such of them rs had the sense to see
that this era of speculative values could not
last hoped to get out before the boom sub
sided, and property was bought today with
the sole expectation of selling at an advance
tomorrow. The result Of the whole has been
that the farm lands within a range of four
r'eS of the center Of the town are laid out
III lots, hundreds of new additions have been
aided to the old city limits and the city has
taken in the whole six miles square of its
township into its boundaries. Real estate
signs grow like crops in widely distant fields,
and the whole country is cut up into net
work Of projected motor lines which all lead
to Wichita. .*m
| met last night one of the influential men
of Wichita, man who is as well posted on
what is going on any man in it, and it is
from his conversation that give the follow
ing incidents of its boom. There is no doubt
of the truth of his statements, which were
given me on condition that his name should
not be connected with them. -.....
II have been here" said he, "for two years,
and have made money. l have kept my eyes
oDen, and there is little that has gone on that
! have not seen. We have had a wonderful
growth, but we have been crazy during the
past year, and all of the world seems to have
rushed in to help u.s. We have had people
here from every country of Europe and every
part of the United States. The craze COM
ilrenced the middle of last November and ex-
tended to the 1st Of April, and during the
lat,er part of it the real estate transfers ran
as high as s2,6O0,0OO week. We gave out
973 licenses to real estate agents, and sold
per acre. The craze is now over, and the
ri izens say they have stopped buying and
gone to building. There is much building
z, ing on, but we will do well if we build up
our present limits in decade. Much prop
erty has been bought on credit, and the reck-
onng day is yet to come"
"How was it possible to create such q
boom?"
"I don't know. Our growth, which has
Jumped from 10000 to about So, 900 in two
V mrs. started it. and the ardor of the specula-
tive American helped it on. Some of the
schemes by which lots were sold are worth
telling We had projected motor lines in
,,ery direction, and any farmer who wanted
=, sell his farm, two or three miles away, had
rniy to get up a straw company. pay $1.50
;,4 a charter to the city, buy few ties and
,ail~ and advertise IL as new addition. The
,l',ro"s would rush for it, and his land
...u.i jump up from less than S100 to several
,lra,snd dollars acre. The same was
done by real estate agents, and OF course in
the majority of cases the lines were stopped
building after the sales were made. As an
instance of this the following arc somo Of the
III tor lines that have been projected:
/. Wichita and Valley Center line of eight miles
in length along the extent Of which lots were
sold.
2 The Wichita and Suburban.
g. The Mascot motor line. . .-
4. The Garfield motor line .e
s. The John Bright motor line.
g. The Rapid Transit motor line
Z. The First street and Central avenue motor
line. -s E.
g. The Richmond motor line.
O. The Fairmount Addition motor line. ~.
"All of these lines" the Wichita man went
on, "were from three to eight miles in length.
Their ordinances provided that they should
have q noiseless notoF through the city, and
for this they might have used dumb mule.
They we're stocked all the way from $250,000
to 81, ,OO0, 600, and the spirit of speculation
was such that of those who went into them
the majority expected to make by selling out
while the boom lasted. OF oil these lines the
rails have been laid for one only, and three
fourths of them will never be built"
"How could they get charters, and do they
not have to give bonds in such cases2" OH 81
aNo. Charters are the cheapest things in
Wichita, and there are more charters granted
In these Kansas towns In year than in all
the rest of the United States. They merely
paid their S1.5O, which is the fee, and they
got them" *@a rzI eHt +l
"The street car lines Of Wichita are mule
lines with the old 7 rail, and the company
which runs them is making money. Its stock
is worth s250 share, and in its charter it is
strictly specified by the city that no other
than the rail shall be used. This charter
was granted about three years ago, and the
council did not then know that the rail was
the cheapest and meanest rail made. The
car company took them in, butthey have pro-
vided for other styles of rails in the charters
granted to other companies atJ M
n suppose there was some swindling during
the reni estate craze" 4ai54 4a E
slt could NOT be otherwise. But those taken
in as a rule smiled oyer it, and what they lost
today expected to gain tomorrow, Ono set
of fellows, and nice men they were, came
here from Pontiac, Mich, A real estate agent
showed them thirty-five acres OF land on the
northeast edge of the town, which was partly
built ND, The agent claimed lie had the land
for sale and the Pontiac men bought it of
him for 81, 500 ON acre, or 800 cash. The
deeds were made out and the Michigan men
went home They returned soon and started
to plot the land They were running their
first street through it when white haired
old man came out and warned them to stop.
He asked them what they meant: said the
land was his and that he had not sold it,
Upon looking up the deed the men found that /
the property described was not the property |
that had been sold them, but that it was |
another piece lying more than six miles away
from the city and good only for farming pur-
poses. They looked for the real estate agent, |
but he had skipped the country and had
taken their fifty odd thousand dollars with
him. The Pontiac men went back to their
Michigan home" va
"The railroad depot schemes that were
played during the craze" the Wichita man
went on, awere profitable and full OF guile.
We have had q number of new roads come
into Wichita, and number were in prospect
which never nafe~;aiigAd The selection of
point ms the depot for any Of these roads was
;ure to raise the prices OF property several
hundred per cent in that vicinity, and the
located them in all parts OF tho
town one after the other, each to be changed
for some unforeseen (D hindrance. Both the
railroad men and some OF the real estate
agents were in these schemes. The railways
tried to get as much money as they could out
Of the people to help them build their depots,
and the real estate men profited by the sales
Of propalty.
sThe Rock Island railroad wanted, for III
stance. to locate its depot on Douglass street,
which is. you know, one Of the two chief
business streets OF the town, and was The best
<ln.x,b Tho s,rnnprfy loitiafS